‘Mayorism’ Marketing: Win Over Your Market

Let’s try a thought experiment. Ask yourself the following “what-if” question, then work through all the possibilities in your mind:

What would your real estate Web marketing strategy look like if you approached it as though you were trying to get elected mayor of your community?

As part of your thought experiment, consider how long it would take you to earn enough votes and public support to get elected mayor of your town. That’s about how long it will take you to implement “mayorism,” a hyperlocal, content marketing strategy that affects how you approach every aspect of advertising, marketing, and creating opportunities to grow your real estate business.

I’m not talking about a shiny new “turnkey solution” that will transform your business overnight. If you’re looking for a quick fix or a slick pitch from someone trying to sell you something, I’ll save you a few minutes right now ... do not finish reading this article.

But if you can master mayorism, it will result in long-term, exponential, sustainable growth and hyperlocal market domination.

The Best “Online” Marketing Strategy

The most effective way to boost your Web presence is to have a strong offline presence.That means adopting the networking and relationship-building tactics of a public official to establish yourself as a trustworthy, local advocate for improving your community.

Sound complicated? It’s not. In fact, you probably already do everything I’ll talk about here, but you may not be not putting all the pieces together in the same way.

This is ultimately the business philosophy behind mayorism: Your online marketing success is a reflection of your expertise and influence in your local community and your ability to publish — or have your content published — online.

Exhibiting your local knowledge depends heavily on face time, not Facebook time.

What’s Your ‘Platform?’

As a real estate professional, you probably already believe in the importance of community. You may even publish information on your Web site or a social network about local businesses, charities, events, and activities, as well as special people, groups and neighborhoods that are making a difference.

To earn the trust and the votes of the people, businesses, and civic organizations and charities in your community, they have to believe that you are looking out for their best interest. How might you use your influence and abilities to help them?

Running Your Campaign

Successful candidates spend a lot of time shaking hands and kissing babies. But elections are won by leaders who are supported by a strong campaign of people working toward the same goal: helping them win.

Who else wins if you get elected “mayor” of your community? Who else in your business model stands to gain from your increased influence and growing base of referrals?

How can you empower these partners by involving them in your campaign so that, through a collaborative effort, you all reach the goal of spreading your message?

Making Mayorism Work

In this upcoming series of articles, I’m going to dissect how this strategy works from the trenches, based in my real-life experience over the past two years.

Take away what makes sense to you and hopefully you will find this concept easy to understand and assimilate into your business’s day-to-day marketing.

About the Author

Scott Schang is a branch manager at Broadview Mortgage’s Katella team in Orange, Calif. His approach to marketing has been to develop niche opportunities within specific demographics of online homebuyers. Schang’s expertise includes WordPress, content marketing, and online lead generation and conversion. Reach him at Scotts@BroadviewMortgage.com. Visit FindMyWayHome.com for more information.